bird, his chin, peaked also, the coarse hair of his grizzled eyebrows, the greenish eyes, the forehead furrowed as if by a ruler with deep parallel wrinkles, the cartilaginous ears, the yellowish skin, the metallic quality of the voice, the slovenly clothes, the insulting grimaces—all his personality from head to foot, from his bag wig to the sole of his coarse shoe, produced at sight an unconquerable repulsion. It can readily be understood that he had not a single friend.
Candiola had no beard; his face, according to the fashion, was quite clean shaven, although the razor did not enter the field more than once a week. If Don Jerónimo had had a beard, it would have made him seem very much like a certain Venetian shopkeeper whom I afterwards came to know very well, travelling in the great world of books, and in whom I find certain traits of physiognomy that recalled the man who had so brusquely presented himself to us in the temple del Pilar.
“Did you see that miserable and ridiculous old man?” Augustine asked me when we were alone, looking towards the door where the three people had disappeared.
“He evidently doesn’t like his daughter to have admirers.”
“But I am sure that he did not see me talking with her. He has suspicions, nothing more. If he should pass from suspicion to certitude, Mariquilla and I would be lost. Did you see that look he threw us, the damned miser?—he is black from his soul to his Satanic hide.”
“Bad sort of father-in-law to have.”
“Bad enough,” said Montoria, sadly. “He would be dear in exchange for a spoonful of verdigris! I am sure he will abuse her tonight; but fortunately he is not in the habit of ill-treating her.”
“And would not the Señor Candiola be pleased to see her married to the son of Don José de Montoria?” I asked.